Friday, April 15, 2011

People who live in a south-Ottawa apartment building are angry after a neighbour's pit bull attacked and killed a small dog -- right in front of its 11-year-old owner.

The boy says he was doing what he does every day after school. He dropped his backpack off at home and took his Shih Tzu, Bailey, out for a walk. Then the attack happened. "The big pit bull came out, grabbed the dog's neck, shook it back and forth," 11-year-old Jesse Lorange told CTV Ottawa. "By the time I got my mom, it was almost dead."

The dog did die. Now, the boy's father wants the pit bull put down. "My dog's gone – that dog should be gone too," said Patrick Lorange.

When CTV Ottawa went looking for the pit bull's owner, Charlie Mayer told us the dog belongs to his daughter. However, he also admitted to having a pit bull of his own. "I have one, she's an old girl and she goes out with her muzzle," he said.

The Ontario government issued a pit bull ban in 2005. The law prohibits breeding, importing or abandoning pit bulls in Ontario. However, people who already owned pit bulls were allowed to keep their dogs, as long as they got them spayed or neutered and put a muzzle and leash on them in public. If the dogs are on their owner's enclosed property, or the property of someone else who allows it, they don't need to be leashed or muzzled.

Although the law has been in place for some time, Mayer's neighbours say it isn't working. They are now planning a petition to ban pit bulls in apartment buildings across the city. "They passed that law that pit bulls have to have muzzles and they don't enforce it," said tenant Joan Cain. Bylaw officials have ordered the dog be destroyed and the owner has agreed to put the dog down. The pit bull will likely be euthanized this week.
*ctvottawa.ca